A burglar kicked in the front door of a home on Juniper Lane between 4 p.m. Tuesday and 6 p.m. Wednesday and stole a TV and a laptop computer altogether valued at $570, Athens-Clarke County police said.

A University of Georgia student was arrested on drug charges Wednesday afternoon after he caught an officer’s attention by blowing his Jeep’s horn in an aggressive manner, Athens-Clarke County police said.

The officer was stopped for a red light at the intersection of Oak and Poplar streets at about 3:30 p.m. when 20-year-old Joshua Mahram “laid” on his vehicle’s horn immediately when the light turned green, according to police.

Richard Shawn Hatcher, 35, was arrested Wednesday morning and charged with simple battery and criminal damage to property after he allegedly kicked in the door of an apartment at University Oaks on West Broad Street and assaulted his girlfriend, Athens-Clarke County police.

The incident was witnessed by someone who called 911 at about 7:40 a.m., but the alleged 33-year-old victim denied that she’d been assaulted and said that damage to the door was old, according to police.

By Nick Coltrain
nick.coltrain@onlineathens.com
The Athens-Oconee Patch website is in limbo after its editor, Rebecca McCarthy, fell victim to company-wide layoffs.
Patch was billed as the hyper-local news website with outlets throughout the country.

The Athens area unemployment rate increased two-tenths of a point to 5.2 percent in December, but still down from 6.4 percent a year ago.
Seasonal unemployment claims drove the increase, according to the Georgia Department of Labor.

UPCOMING EVENTS
iServe Ministries food distribution: Begins 7 a.m. Feb. 8 in the parking lot of Lanier Technical College in Commerce. Each person/family will have to fill out a form regarding the family's income.

Is couponing easier in the city, the suburbs or rural areas? As a suburbanite who lives in Chicagoland, I have to argue that couponing usually is easiest in the suburbs, particularly if you live within a radius of a major city.

Why? Shopping options tend to be plentiful, with several supermarket and drugstore chains competing for your business and your shopping dollars. It’s easy to hop in the car and make a quick trip, or, if you’re so inclined, visit multiple retailers in the same trip.

The Athens-based nonprofit We're hEAR For You, which educates the public about noise-induced hearing loss, has joined forces with Nuci's Space and the University of Georgia Speech Hearing Clinic to host the Free Hearing Screening Day.

By Maria Cheng
Associated Press
LONDON
An experimental therapy that fed children with peanut allergies small amounts of peanut flour has helped more than 80 percent of them safely eat a handful of the previously worrisome nuts.

The cadre and cadets of the Clarke Central High School Gladiator Battalion are hosting the second annual JROTC Invitational Drill Meet on Saturday on the Clarke Central campus.
Competition will begin at 9 a.m.

By Lee Shearer
lee.shearer@onlineathens.com
Athens area school administrators expected school schedules to return to normal today.
"Back to normal Friday," Clarke County School District spokeswoman Anisa Sullivan Jimenez said Thursday.

ATLANTA — Snow cover in north Georgia has led to very cold early morning temperatures Thursday - a crucial day when authorities are hoping above-freezing temperatures will melt some ice and snow from slick highways.

ATLANTA — Police and the National Guard helped people reunite with their abandoned cars Thursday as the logjam on Atlanta highways eased and the roads thawed, two days after a winter storm hit the Deep South.

By Joe Johnson
joe.johnson@onlineathens.com
A Clarke County grand jury this week indicted a teen on charges he allegedly strangled his 4-year-old sister during a dispute at his mother's home in Athens three months ago.

The East Georgia Cancer Coalition will host a six-week course to help survivors of cancer learn to cook healthy food that also tastes good from 6-8 p.m. Tuesdays starting Feb. 4 at the Complex Carbohydrate Research Center off Riverbend Road.

SALT LAKE CITY — Erica Lukes and other Utah parents were outraged when their children had their deep dish pizzas and other food taken and thrown away at their elementary school after a cashier said they owed money on their lunch accounts.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — OhioState University trustees picked a California educator as the school's nextpresident Thursday, ending a search that began with the former president's retirement following remarks critical of Roman Catholics and Southeastern Conference schools.

WASHINGTON — A Navy admiral is President Barack Obama's choice to be the next head of the National Security Agency, which is embroiled in controversy over its secret surveillance programs and massive collection of phone and Internet data.

BEIRUT — The United States accused the Syrian government Thursday of using stalling tactics to delay efforts to remove and destroy chemical agents, an indication that the international community's patience is wearing thin over the slow pace of the operation.

CAMBRIDGE, Md. — House Republicans wrestled inconclusively with the outlines of immigration legislation Thursday night, sharply divided over the contentious issue itself and the political wisdom of acting on it in an election year.

GREENVILLE, Ky. — The bodies of eight children and their mother were found huddled together in a master bedroom and a ninth body was found just steps away, victims of an early-morning fire Thursday from which only the father and an 11-year-old daughter escaped after it ripped through a modest home in western Kentucky.

HARTFORD, Conn. — A federal judge upheld Connecticut's gun control law on Thursday, saying the sweeping measure is constitutional even as he acknowledged the Second Amendment rights of gun owners who sued to block it.

When the snow started falling Tuesday and cars lined up on the highways, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed were at an awards luncheon, smiling and back-slapping each other as the Republican governor introduced the Democratic mayor, who was named a local magazine’s “Georgian of the Year." Just 40 minutes earlier, the mayor declared via Twitter: “Atlanta, we are ready for the snow.”

FLORENCE, Italy — More than two years after Amanda Knox returned to the U.S. apparently home free, an Italian court Thursday reinstated her murder conviction in the stabbing of her roommate and increased her sentence to 28½ years in prison, raising the specter of a long extradition fight.

BOSTON — Federal prosecutors Thursday announced they will seek the death penalty against 20-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the Boston Marathon bombing, accusing him of betraying his adopted country by ruthlessly carrying out a terrorist attack calculated to cause maximum carnage.

NEW YORK — New York law enforcement authorities cracked down Thursday on a prostitution ring that they said advertised on public access cable TV, took credit cards and used text messages to market "party packs" of cocaine and sex to clients.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy grew at a 3.2 percent annual rate in the October-December quarter on the strength of the strongest consumer spending in three years, an encouraging sign for 2014.

The fourth-quarter increase followed a 4.1 percent growth rate in the July-September quarter, when the economy benefited from a buildup in business stockpiles.

For 2013 as a whole, the economy grew a tepid 1.9 percent, weaker than the 2.8 percent increase in 2012, the Commerce Department said Thursday. Growth was held back last year by higher taxes and federal spending cuts.

By Matt Towery
ATLANTA - It was a winter storm response described as an "epic failure" of government by one national news network.
A midday winter storm struck Atlanta's metro population of nearly 6 million on Tuesday.

A Tuesday letter to the editor headlined “Benghazi shouldn’t be politicized” — a sentiment with which I wholeheartedly agree — sadly illustrates the Republican fixation with blaming the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton for the tragedy, even in the face of investigative findings to the contrary.

OK, I’m sure we had some isolated incidents in our area, but I think we need to tip our hat and give credit where it is due to the local governments, the public works crews, utility providers, school districts, the University of Georgia, all other educational institutions, and, of course, our businesses and industries for “suiting up and showing up” the last couple of days as snow fell across this part of the state and ice formed on the roads.

By Brad Gill Georgia Outdoor News There is an old deer-hunting adage that should encourage those who depend on public land to fill their deer-hunting desires: "You never know what may show up during the rut.

ATLANTA — The snow and sleet had stopped falling and traffic was moving again around Atlanta following a crippling storm — but officials warned that ice-covered roads remained a threat for drivers Thursday morning.

ALBANY, N.Y. — Officials say 18 people are being rounded up in New York City on allegations they sold "party packs" of cocaine and sex to high-end clients and texted clients to advertise ahead of this week's Super Bowl festivities.

BAYONNE, N.J. — Kim Waite was especially disappointed to fall ill while treating herself to a Caribbean cruise after completing cancer treatment. The London woman thought she was the only sick one as her husband wheeled her to the infirmary — until the elevator doors opened to reveal hundreds of people vomiting into bags, buckets or on the floor, whatever was closest.

ATLANTA — Atlanta's mayor is battling back against accusations that the city failed to prepare for snow and ice that jammed freeways and left drivers and schoolchildren stranded for hours in sub-freezing temperatures.

ATLANTA — The snow and sleet have stopped falling and traffic was moving again around Atlanta following a crippling storm — but transportation and rescue officials said that didn't mean it was safe yet to drive, especially after the sun goes down.